This invention relates to device for step-feeding panels to a machine arranged to effect a determinate working on them.
In particular, this invention relates to a feeding device particularly suitable to be utilized for feeding printed circuit support bases to a machine for manufacturing printed circuits.
In the following description, express reference is made to the problem of feeding the support bases to a machine for manufacturing printed circuits, without detracting anything from the generality of the treated problems which remain valid, with negligible variations, for any type of panel to be automatically fed step by step to a working machine.
In the manufacturing of printed circuits, one of the operations most difficult to be automated is the operation of feeding the support bases to a machine for manufacturing printed circuits. It has been devised to resolve this problem by means of belt conveyers arranged to feed the support bases one by one to the printed circuit manufacturing machine; this method, however, has the disadvantage of requiring, generally, an initial manual operation consisting in arranging the support bases one by one on the conveyers. Moreover, expensive devices for linking the conveyers to the printed circuit manufacturing machine are required.
A solution which is less expensive than the one described hereinabove, is based, instead, on the utilization of picking-up sucker assemblies arranged to pick-up the support bases one by one from a stack and to feed them to the printed circuit manufacturing machine. This solution, which is very similar to that applied for feeding paper sheets to the printing presses, is much more compact and economical than the preceding one, but has the disadvantage that it can be applied only in case of support bases having a minimum number of holes, and for a mass-production only. In fact, it is evident that the arrangement of the pick-up suckers must be such that none of them is situated in face of a hole, which would render uneffectual the sucker, and that such arrangement must be varied according to the type of support bases to be fed. Moreover, the suckers cannot be utilized when the density of the holes is such as not to allow the application of a sucker in any portion of the support base.
It results from the foregoing that no satisfactory solution has been found till now for the problem of providing a feeding device which is not only compact and economical, but also reduces to a minimum the manual operations and its multivalent, i.e. may be utilized for any type of support base or panel.